The Selling Newsletter
The Selling Newsletter
from Best@Selling
A free monthly newsletter of ideas to help make your selling easier.
Selling is the easiest job in the world…Just ask anyone who is NOT in sales! Best wishes for YOUR successful selling—Maura
This issue contains:
-The Selling Quote for the Month
-Upcoming Programs
-The Selling Ideas for the Month
-Action Items
-Selling Tips
-To Subscribe to the Selling Newsletter
-Need an article for your newsletter?
-About Maura Schreier-Fleming
-Contact Information
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The Selling Quote for the Month
“A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.”
–Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting Mrs. Fields’ Cookies.
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”
–Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
The next time you ask a really smart, trusted advisor for his or her opinion make sure you add your own opinion to the mix. There are times when trusted and smart people are just wrong. Don’t you think Decca Recording had some experts in the music business who made that terrible decision? The founder of Federal Express, Fred Smith, proposed his idea to a Yale Management professor. Fred was told “The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.” Yale management professors are known to be pretty smart, too. Just because people are more experienced or even smarter than you are, it doesn’t make them always right. You will have selling strategies that you think will work with your prospects. You might want to ask a more experienced, successful salesperson for advice on your thinking. Make sure you include your gut reaction into the mix of advice you get. If you want to disagree with the experts, you have my permission to do so. Fred Smith, Mrs. Fields and many, many others would agree with me, too.
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Sales Programs
Does your trade association or company have a meeting planned? Have Maura speak on selling and business skills and strategies at your conference so you can sell more this year.
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The Selling Ideas for this Month
Sales Surprises
I’m not a fan of surprises. I like them even less in sales. What is worse is when the unexpected can be prevented. Competition is tough enough. You don’t need to cause your own frustration. Here’s what you can do if you want to sell without getting any unnecessary surprises.What happened? A marketing consultant met with a department head of an international telecommunications company. He learned that her department had employees with different levels of experience in marketing. As a result, the less experienced staff was missing project deadlines and results were sub par. As a result of the meeting, the consultant had a solution that he wanted to propose. He could provide just in time project management expertise that would be within budget and produce the results the company needed. He suggested another meeting to present his ideas to the department manager.Surprise! At the meeting the consultant was surprised by the people in attendance. The department manager brought in other consultants with whom she was working to gauge their interest in his proposal. Since their work involved coaching and training they perceived him as an immediate threat to their contracts. They were very comfortable about voicing their concern about his services. The other consultants said they thought his work would not fit the company culture. This was not the case. They were being critical only to protect their own interests of keeping more of the company’s business for themselves! As the marketing consultant looked back on his selling at that meeting, he realized he made many false assumptions before the meeting. He also didn’t ask questions to confirm or refute them. Do over! As the salesman looked back at his work, he realized what he had forgotten to do. Before the meeting he should have told the department head that he had a solution he wanted to propose. That would require decision makers to be present. He then could have asked about the decision making process and made certain that the right people would be at the meeting. He then could have asked the department manager who she thought should attend the meeting. By asking why each person should attend he would have learned their expected role in the decision making process. Had he asked that question, he could have suggested that there was no purpose in having his competitors present at the meeting. Any time you’re meeting to propose a solution, your primary objective should be to get decision makers in the room. That’s the only way to shorten your sales cycle. Only when decision makers are present can you do your own selling. When decision makers miss your presentations, you’ll have other people do your selling for you. That’s not good. Even worse is when the people who are present can sabotage your selling. Clean up your mess. The sale didn’t happen- at least not then. When the consultant realized the wrong people were in the room he also realized that he had nothing to lose. He knew his services were needed at the company. That’s when he asked more questions about the company culture to find out how consultants were hired. He found out that business unit heads were the ones with the budgets and the most concerned about missed deadlines. In fact, the consultants in the room were hired by business unit heads, not the department head. His revised strategy includes calling on another internal contact to introduce him to the key business unit head who would most see the need for his work. It’s too bad that he never got the sale after his presentation. It’s good he realized his mistake.
Surprises will happen in sales when you make assumptions and forget to clarify. When you sell more thoughtfully and ask the right questions, don’t be surprised when you get the sale.
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Action Items
1. Check your calendar. Do you know who will be attending your next scheduled meetings? Do you need to call to ask more questions to find out who will be present and why they will be there?
2. Do you know the answer to the question “How will you be making a buying decision?” and “Who along with you is involved in the decision to buy (your product/service)? If not, find out.
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Selling Tip
From Maura’s ebook: 97 Ways to Sell More Now E-Book
https://www.bestatselling.com/selling_tools.htm#5
Selling Tips
From Maura’s ebook: 97 Ways to Sell More Now E-Book
https://www.bestatselling.com/selling_tools.htm#5
Tip 6. Go to a trade association meeting and meet new people.
Be prepared to get to know people, get involved and understand your prospect’s business.
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Looking for new strategies to improve your persuasion skills? This easy to apply Audio CD will give you many new ideas to easily improve your persuasion skills so you can sell more and close business faster.
https://www.bestatselling.com/Audio_CD.htm
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I’m always looking for success stories and other tips from sales professionals. Please feel free to email me at info@bestatselling.com with ideas that have worked for you.
If you want to build customer relationships for long-term business, you can easily do it using Exacttarget (www.exacttarget.com) and their CANSPAM compliant broadcast services.
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To Subscribe to the Selling Newsletter
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Need an Article for Your Newsletter?
Articles from this newsletter may be used in your free publications or posted on your web when given the following credit:
Written by Maura Schreier-Fleming, Best@Selling (www.BestatSelling.com). Maura works with business and sales professionals who want to sell more and be more productive at work. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results.
For free articles, selling ideas and morale boosters
visit https://www.BestatSelling.com
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About Maura Schreier-Fleming
Invite Maura to speak at your next conference or sales meeting! Contact: info@bestatselling.com
Maura Schreier-Fleming works with business and sales professionals to make it easier to sell more and be more productive at work. Her Best@Selling clients want to create long-term client relationships. They include Fujitsu, Fannie Mae and Dr Pepper/7UP. She has an M.S. in Textile Engineering from Georgia Tech and was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. With over 20 years of sales experience, she teaches the art and science of selling with a unique hands-on perspective and a great deal of real-life insight. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results (a book filled with ideas to make selling easier and more productive. Her business column ‘Selling Strategies’ appears in the Insurance Record magazine and her column ‘Street Talk’ appears in Jobbers World. You can contact her for seminars at company or trade association meetings at 972 380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com
Privacy: At Best@Selling we take privacy issues very seriously. Your information remains with us and will never be sold, shared, or distributed in any manner, for any reason.
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Contact Information
1. Our Web site: https://www.BestatSelling.com
2. E-mail: info@bestatselling.com
3. Call: In Dallas 972 380 0200
4. Write us:
6757 Arapaho Rd., Suite 711-183
Dallas, TX 752448
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(c) Copyright 2006 Maura Schreier-Fleming. All rights reserved
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